effect pedals...

They alter the sound of the guitar. Different pedals do very different things. Compressors even out the volume so everything sounds the same volume. Distortion pedals add distortion giving you a hard rock sound. Delay will make the notes you play echo a few times. There are probably a hundred different types of pedals that all do different things.

Somebody else will probably give you a better worded answer than that, I'm afraid I'm not terribly good at wording things.

Thanks again Mike! You're advice has been pretty helpful!

No problem man, everybody here is helpful. That's why this is my favorite guitar forum. I couldn't tell the number of times people has helped me on here, whether it be with questions I've asked or just reading other people's questions.

Probably the best way to find out about all of the effects and how they sound is to buy a muti-effects pedal and experiment wit different settings. I have one of the Digitech pedals, and I just took eack individual effect that is available, one at a time, and stored them in individuasl settings. That way I can scroll among them and see what each sounds like.

Yep, multi efx units are perfect for teaching you about guitar efx. Plus some of them have amp mods which are SOOOO sweeet.

If you hit some of the websites for people like Digitech, Boss, Vox etc, you can get some samples of what a particular pedal does to your sound. Always worth checking out.

Best,

A :-)

I'd probably go the other way and buy a couple of cheap singles, you can get them for as little as $15 for a fixed effect. Go up to thirty bucks and you are going to get something halfway decent.

Sometimes on multi-effects it's hard to figure out what is doing what. With singles it's easy to see and figure out.

I would go with singles too. I had the experience Nick was speaking of when I purchased my first multi fx.. It was a neat deal, lots of fun, but with my single pedals I can turn one on and everything else off and play with that for a while.

You can also go to places like THISand they will give you descriptions of what each pedal does.

Also, if you go to Musicians Friendand go to the individual effects then a lot of times they will have a sample.

Jim

I'd probably go the other way and buy a couple of cheap singles, you can get them for as little as $15 for a fixed effect. Go up to thirty bucks and you are going to get something halfway decent.

Ebay's great for that. I picked up Danelectro Flange, Overdrive and Distortion pedals last summer at no more than £15 each and a number of multi-FX boxes at no more than £25 each (the cheapest cost me 18 Euros including 8 Euros postage - people in Britain don't like dealing in currency so I got it for minimum bid). I have a chorus pedal due to turn up in the next few days too which met the £15 including postage maximum cost criteria.

I also have new neighbours. I wonder why the last lot moved........

Best,

A :-)

Nick makes a good point. I have a line6 PODxt Live and have only downloaded some setups from the internet because the thing is so complex in what it can do. Huge learning curve the novice like me.

DB

http://cmoore.com/funstuff/humor/monkeyfx.php

Try this its not the most indepth of answers but it does give you an idea of what the different effects do, and you'll hopefully have a laugh while you read it.

On the multi vs single effects pedals debate, I have the Zoom G2 multi effects pedal and as has been said above it is quite complicated to dial in new effects but once you get the hang of it (which does require quite a lot of perserverance) you can make some cool sounds and it will let you see how each different effect changes the sound. It also has the bonus of a drum machine and a chromatic tuner. I think it costs around £55.

It might be worth your while going into a shop and asking to try some different pedals.

Stevie